>  On May 5, 2008, at 8:20 PM, Jay Allen wrote:
>  > I'm using it to try and drive awareness and sales - we're planning on
>  > launching a blog and including it there as well. Any great ideas for
>  > increasing "followers"?

> Hi Jay... I've been on twitter for ages and ages and I can give you my
>  PERSONAL opinion... YMMV. :)

>  For me, I get followed a good bit -- currently I follow 236 and 915
>  follow me. When people follow me, I get an email notice and I always
>  click to see who they are. Now, the reason I follow some of those and
>  don't follow others relates to the value of what they write. If
>  someone is witty, I'll follow. If they do something in my industry I
>  know about, and post relevant things, I'll follow. If I met them at a
>  conference or something, I'll follow for a while and see how it
>  goes... I sometimes even follow people that I see my friends replying
>  to consistently that seem interesting. I've met great people that way.

>  If someone follows me and has 3 posts. Forget it (unless I know them).
>  If their twitter stream only contains their blog post notifications
>  being posted to twitter, I won't follow. I can subscribe to their RSS
>  if I want that. If all they're doing is talking about their product --
>  why do I care? I'm inundated with advertising all over my life. That's
>  not what twitter's for.

>  I will also unfollow people if they feel that twitter is an IM client
>  and fill my stream with @ replies to everyone they know. Recently, I
>  dropped a couple people that are using BrightKite to post their
>  location and have set those notifications to be sent to twitter. I
>  really don't want to see a full day of the addresses of everywhere you
>  go - " I'm at 7804 King Rd, Meridian, MS 39305, USA"  Whatever.

>  So I guess the moral of the story is -- if you want followers -- have
>  something to say that is of value to them. Either be funny and witty,
>  useful and smart, friendly and helpful or relevant to my life. But
>  don't look at twitter as a tool only to be used to boost your blog,
>  your product, or constantly chat with your friends -- that is if you
>  want others to follow. :)

>  Ciao,
>  Stef.
>  ---
>  Stephanie Sullivan
>  http://www.w3conversions.com

> Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3 [New Riders]
>  Co-lead: Adobe Task Force for WaSP